Not With A Fizzle
by The Black Sun's Daughter
Summary: ...but with a bang. That's how Becker and his dæmon Micah are introduced to the infamous dinosaur-wrangling ARC team.
1. But With A Bang

Becker – Micah, Doberman pinscher  
Stephen – Thalia, African wild dog  
Connor – Akela, grey wolf  
Cutter – Katya, snow leopard  
Jenny – Varro, silver fox  
Abby – Leofas, pine marten

* * *

The first day that Captain H. James Becker and his dæmon Micah began working in the ARC, he was introduced to the team not with a fizzle, but with a bang.

Literally.

He was walking down the corridor with Micah loping along just behind and to the right of his feet as all military dæmons were trained to do when another bloke nearly ran into him coming 'round the corner, his attention focused entirely on the folder he was attempting to read. "Steady on, mate," said the other bloke, tall and well-fit with a mess of dark hair and sharp blue eyes. At his side was the most peculiar looking dæmon Becker had seen yet. She had the sleek elegance of a greyhound with her long, slender legs and slim build, but she had a ridiculously fluffy tail and enormous round Mickey Mouse ears, not to mention her fur was mottled in tan, white, black, and dark brown like a tortoiseshell without the style. "Hey, you're the new soldier boy, aren't you?" asked the man.

Becker raised an eyebrow. "Captain Becker," he said coolly, then rested a hand atop his dæmon's head. "Micah."

"Mm. I'm Stephen Hart, this here's Thalia," the other bloke replied, ruffling the odd dog dæmon's ears. She wagged her fluffy white tail and grinned broadly at Micah, showing lots of sharp white teeth. "Has Lester given you the five-pence tour already?"

"Yes, we've been shown the facility."

Before Hart could answer, however, there was a _bang!_ as loud as a gunshot from one of the labs, and Becker's hand automatically went to his sidearm as Micah stood up straight, ears cocked forward. Hart only glanced down the corridor as if someone had shut a door particularly loud, and Thalia's tail thumped eagerly on the floor. "Connor's home!" she exclaimed.

They made their way towards the sound, Hart walking calmly, Becker still with a ready hand on his sidearm. One of the labs had the door propped open, smoke filtering out into the corridor. On the table was some sort of machinery, a mess of tubes, wires, gears, and such, the source of the smoke pouring out into the room, and sitting on the floor was a young man wearing what looked like a set of aviator's goggles and the most eye-catching clash of colours that Becker had ever seen. He waved a hand in front of him to clear the smoke away and coughed out, "Wow! That was _great!"_

As Becker stared down at the sitting man with disbelief, Hart calmly stepped around him and crouched on his heels, using the edge of his sleeve to wipe away the soot that blackened the goggles. "Good to have you back, geek-boy," Hart remarked with a wry twist of the lips even as Thalia's tail wagged so hard her hindquarters slipped back and forth with the scratch of nails on tile. "At least you wore goggles this time."

The young man beamed, pushing the goggles back on his head. "Akela wouldn't let me otherwise."

It was then that Micah noticed a pair of luminous golden eyes watching them from beneath the table. The dæmon had been indistinguishable from the shadows around her at first glance because her fur was entirely black, no other trace of colour anywhere in her. At first, Becker thought she was perhaps some sort of dog, but as she rose and slid out into full light, Micah bristled defencively and pressed back against his leg at the sight of the largest wolf that he'd ever seen, dæmon or not. _This must be Akela, then,_ she thought towards Becker, and he sent a mental nod of agreement.

"Well, one of us must has to look out for you, and you certainly don't do it," Akela said in a velvety voice that sounded like wet silk dragged over stone. Thalia bounded over eagerly to playfully nip at one of the wolf's ears, still wagging her tail and grinning; it seemed that all of Hart's levity had been put into his dæmon. Akela responded with a lick of the muzzle.

"At least now I don't have to look after him every second," Hart remarked dryly.

"Oh, whatever," the still-unnamed young man chortled, giving Hart a good-natured elbow to the ribs, then reached out and _stroked Thalia's back._ He simply reached out and _touched_ the other man's dæmon as casually as Becker might scratch Micah's ears.

"The fuck?" Micah hissed quietly, taking another step back towards him.

Hart didn't even blink twice, and even smiled a little as Thalia leant into the touch, tail thumping. He placed a sure hand on Akela's head, rubbing behind her ears.

As Becker was mentally reeling from this oh-so-very casual breach of the most deeply ingrained taboos, two new voices spoke from the doorway.

"Well, lad, you're not even home a day, and you've blown something up. I just won sixty quid," laughed a man's voice with a thick Scottish brogue.

"And I've got forms to fill out now," sighed a cultured feminine tone.

Standing there was a man in his late thirties or so, with unkempt blond hair and intelligent blue eyes, arm in arm with a gorgeous dark-haired woman, her makeup and hair impeccable, dressed sharp as a blade whilst the man was in well-worn cargo trousers and faded t-shirt. To the man's opposite side was a sleek snow leopard and a silver fox dæmon. The fox stood just between the snow leopard's front legs so the tips of its ears just tickled the underside of the cat's jaw. Neither seemed at all perturbed by Hart and the young man's casual touch of each other's dæmons.

Then a third voice piped in, "I heard something blow up, is Connor back?" A head of white-blond hair cropped boyishly short popped around the corner just before a young woman in punk-rockette style clothing came to stand beside the man and woman. Curled around her nape was a handsome pine marten with intelligent dark eyes.

"Hiya, Abby!" Connor enthused, waving at her with his free hand as Hart grasped his other arm and hauled him up to his feet. "I'm surprised the smoke alarm hasn't gone off yet."

"Well, it's dissipated down the corridor now, or it probably would've," Abby remarked as she came over to hug him tightly, then turned to look at Becker and Micah. The entire time, they'd both been standing off to the side like a pair of stumps, taking in the unfolding scene with disbelieving eyes. "Oi, take a look, it's our new soldier boy!"

Connor let out a burbling laugh. "Look at his face! Think we've done stumped Action Man."

Before he or Micah could think of a thing to say, an alarm began blaring loudly in another part of the ARC. "And we're on," Hart said. "C'mon, Cutter, let's get to the Hilux." He hastened out of the room, Thalia bounding at his heels.

"Go, I've got it," said the dark-haired woman, already holding a mobile to one ear. She kissed the man, Cutter, on the cheek then expertly used one thumb to swipe away the smudge of lipstick on his cheek.

"You're an angel, Jenny, never doubt it," Cutter remarked as the snow leopard departed a feline kiss to the fox's head with her raspy tongue before hurrying away after Hart. "You, with them," she told Becker sharply in a voice that said she didn't expect nor would she tolerate any backtalk.

Abby clapped Becker on the shoulder with more force than such a petite figure should wield. "Let's see what you've got, Action Man," she challenged before loping out the door.

"If you think you can keep up, of course," Connor added as a parting shot on his way out the door at Abby's heels, the black shadow of Akela loping easily at his heels.

Becker glanced down at Micah, just to be sure that she'd seen and heard the same thing he had. She gave him a helpless shrug. Hitching up the Mossberg on his shoulder, he took off in the direction the others had gone.

This was certainly going to be interesting.


	2. Sink or Swim

Becker dropped down into his new chair with a huff, slumping back into the seat; Micah flopped on her belly, lying across his feet as she usually did. "We've really put our foot in it this time, Hil," she huffed.

"No kidding," he muttered.

Today had been probably the most interesting first day of any job he had ever worked, _ever,_ including his tour of an active warzone. First, he was introduced to the strangest, most ragtag, eclectic team of bloody civilians that he had seen – oh, God, Cutter was going to drive him bonkers, he knew it – and then there was an anomaly in the British Museum of all places. Up until then, Becker had been inwardly sceptical of the whole anomaly thing because, really? Holes in space-time that let dinosaurs through? Little too sci-fi for him, thank you very much. But oh, no, it was very real, and the giant crocodile... _thing_ that had come out of said anomaly and charged through the streets of London, that was very, _very_ real. Toss in a very attractive if acerbically-tongued civilian doctor with a mouse dæmon, and there was a certified recipe for disaster. There had only been one casualty, though, both a relief and a shame at the same time, and they had gotten the crocodile thing back through to its own time without too much of a hitch, thanks to the civilian Dr. Page.

He groaned and put his head down against his desk, eyes closed as he thumped his forehead repeatedly against the hard surface. _What the buggering hell was I thinking?_

"Don't do that, you'll need all of your brain intact to get through this job alive," said a woman's voice from the doorway; Becker sat bolt upright as Micah lifted her head in surprise, both turning towards the door. Standing there was a beautiful dark-skinned woman dressed just as sharply as Lester, with a stack of slim folders in her manicured hands. Perched on one shoulder was a small tawny owl that could easily fit in Becker's hand, watching Micah with bright golden eyes.

Becker straightened up in his chair. "And who are you, ma'am?" he asked courteously.

Her plum mouth curled into a smile. "I am the person you need on your side," she replied. "My name is Lorraine Wickes, and this is Ezekiel." The owl dæmon bobbed his head in greeting. "I'm Lester's assistant if anyone asks. Lester thinks that he runs things around here, but that's just something I let him believe. See, Captain, I know everything there is to know in the ARC. Nothing happens here that I don't know about. The walls have eyes and ears if I say so. I'm practically the Spider."

"What spider?" he asked in bafflement.

"Varys? Game of Thrones? Never mind. The point is, I'm the person you want to be friends with here, Captain," Lorraine Wickes announced in a calm steady voice, both hands clasped together with the files between them. "I'm the queen behind the scenes, and my subjects pay tithe in the form of chocolates, biscuits, and gift cards to various shops I like. Actually, make it a gift card to the Odds and Ends craft shop. I have my eye on a label-maker there."

Okay, this was getting just a little too strange for him. "Wait a moment, why should I – ?"

She opened the topmost folder and began to read aloud. "Captain Hilary James Becker. Born May 29th in 1985, twenty-six years old, into a family that has a very distinguished military history including your father, your uncle, and both paternal and maternal grandfathers. Has had triathlon and archery training, ranked as a top-tier sniper, capable in three different forms of hand-to-hand combat, and qualified in nearly every firearm on God's green earth, up to and including operating a tank. Graduated from Sandhurst, top of his class, highly commended in Special Ops, got up the ranks quick due to your, and I quote, 'intelligence, bravery, and ability to make the tough call.'" Lorraine closed the folder and looked back at him, eyebrow raised. "Believe me now?"

Becker's mouth had fallen open during her little speech, and he hastily snapped it shut again. "How the hell did you...?"

"We told you, Captain. We know everything," the owl Ezekiel hooted softly, ruffling his wings.

"Don't worry, these are my private files. Nobody else sees these copies," she informed him, patting the folder, then stepped forward, pulled a second chair up to his desk, and sat down with the files in her lap. "There's one for every member of the response team. Nothing quite so personal as yours, but enough for you to know who you're dealing with and what to expect so they don't end up leaving you hung out to dry. Call this your unofficial debriefing into the ARC response team."

Realising that this woman meant business, Becker leant in to listen attentively. Ms. Lorraine Wickes might not wear the uniform, but he could definitely recognise a commanding officer when he saw one.

She slid the folder from the top of the stack across the table to him. Each one had a photo clipped to the front of it, and Becker recognised the pale-haired man that told the others to ignore Becker if he thought that the captain was wrong. "Firstly is the leader of the merry band, Professor Nick Cutter. He's the big Scottish bloke. His dæmon's name is Katya, she's the snow leopard. And he's exactly what you expect from a Scottish professor. Very brilliant, very stubborn, very infuriating. And before you ask and the thought _will_ come to you at some point, no, you cannot shoot him. He doesn't like soldiers overmuch, in case you hadn't noticed, and he will personally go out of his way to make your life hell if you piss him off. He's the immovable object of the team, and trying to argue with him is going to get you about as far as arguing with a brick wall. If you _do_ want to get through to Cutter, your best bet is to go through these two."

Two more files met the tabletop, one with Hart's photo and the other with the dark-haired bird he'd yet to catch the name of. "Dr. Stephen Hart and Ms. Jenny Lewis. Stephen is Cutter's best mate and right-hand man, the yin to his yang, if you would. He's almost as good with guns as you are, but he's got just as much smarts as Cutter does when it comes to the creatures. He's also an outstanding tracker, so if you've ever got an incursion out in the field, he's the one to see about tracking it down. His dæmon is Thalia, she's an African wild dog. Stephen isn't exactly Mr. Sunshine, but Thalia is definitely where all his levity can be found. Next is Jenny Lewis. She's our Public Relations manager. You might've seen her in action today. She's the person that gets the civilians out of the way and convinces them that no, they did not see what they think they saw. Any urban anomaly incursion will be handled by her. Also, not a person you want to be on the bad side of, because if Cutter is the immovable object, meet the unstoppable force. She's also the professor's girlfriend of over a year now, and is the only person that I've ever seen bring him to heel. Varro's her dæmon, silver fox, and that should tell you plenty about the kind of person she is."

Foxes. Clever, wily creatures able to spin a lie as if it were the truth and convince anyone of anything. He definitely saw that being a PR manager's dæmon, just like he was starting to see how Ms. Wickes was certainly an owl sort of person.

"Next is the new Dr. Abby Maitland. She's just finished her herpetology degree, and that is the study of snakes, lizards, tortoises, anything with scales. Formerly an employee of Wellington Zoo in the Reptile House. She loves animals but reptiles are definitely her favourite, she's got a whole host of them as pets, and she runs our menagerie. Professional kickboxer, rated in small firearms. Abby is the only person on the team that cares about the creatures more than Cutter does, and if you shoot one without permission, she will kick your balls into your throat, physically and verbally. Don't let her size fool you, she has brought down men twice her size in the sparring matches. Daemon is a pine marten, Leofas."

"Last but certainly not least, here is Dr. Connor Temple, who's just returned from a science conference he was invited to. He's an absolute genius with a tested IQ of 182, has a double doctorate in palaeontology/evolutionary zoology and engineering. He's also a MacGyver-esque inventor. He built our explorative rover from common household appliances, including a DIY model helicopter kit, a microwave oven, and a hairdryer. He built our detector as well and as I understand it has begun work on a device that should be able to close the anomalies. Now, he might be a genius, but there is a fine line between genius and madness. He's not exactly overburdened with practicality, but you can count on him to do something stupidly brave if one of the team is in danger. He can't handle a gun to save his life, but he's very good with knives. I saw him put a throwing knife through the spade on an ace of spades at thirty paces. He's Abby's best friend, Cutter's protégé, and Stephen's long-term boyfriend. As you saw today, they have no issue touching each other's dæmons, and it's actually fairly common for them. Now, Connor might look like a git at times, but he's already been through more than most people ever have in their entire lives. His dæmon is Akela, she's a grey wolf and she doesn't speak to much of anyone except for Stephen and Thalia. Also, he is the youngest member of the team, and is the one person that everyone here loves, so _definitely_ don't do anything to endanger him or try to intimidate or threaten him. If you do, you might as well hand in your resignation, because the one thing that this team does is protect its own, and they will bury you."

Lorraine pushed the files across the table to him. "There you are. That's everyone. Any questions?"

"No, I think we've got it from here, Ms. Wickes," Becker replied, once more arranging the files into a neat stack for him to look over in a moment. She might have just handed him the key to survival in foreign territory. As she stood and made her way back to the door, he called out after her, "Ms. Wickes. Thank you."

She turned to give him a smile as Ezekiel rotated his head around in that eerie boneless way owls could. "I've done what I can to help you, Captain. Sink or swim. It's on you. And don't forget, either. Tithe." She winked and sauntered away.

"Damn, what a woman," Micah said quietly.

Becker laughed and roughed her ears. "No kidding. Now sit up straight, soldier. We've got homework to do," he remarked, pulling the folders back towards him. He took out Cutter's folder first and opened it. Might as well start at the top and work his way down from there.

* * *

The next day, Lorraine Wickes returned from her lunch break to find an envelope on her desk with her name written on it. As Ezekiel glided silently onto the perch she kept on her desk for him, she opened the envelope and shook out a sheet of stock paper that had only five words on it: _I learned to swim_ _– B._ Taped to the back of the stock was a gift card to the Odds  & Ends craft shop worth forty pounds.

She glanced through the glass walls of her office to see Captain Becker walking by on his rounds, Micah at his heels. He gave her a small nod as he passed.

"We are so totally the Spider," Ezekiel giggled excitedly, hopping from foot to foot on his perch.

"No, we are much better than the Spider," Lorraine replied as she tucked the gift card into her purse.


End file.
